High-strength metal parts are commonly used in the airspace industry. These parts are generally formed of metals and metal alloys that have a high melting point temperature and/or are difficult to form. As such, when special part profiles are required for the metal parts such as a leading edge on an engine fan blade or the like, these metal parts can be difficult, time consuming and expensive to manufacture.
Aircraft components such as blades are commonly constructed of a composite laminate or molded fiber. The metal leading edge (“MLE”) is typically formed of a protective strip that is applied to the blade. The MLE is commonly used to protect composite blades from impact and erosion damage that can occur during use. Typically, a V-shaped protective metallic strip is often wrapped around the leading edge and sides of the blade to provide the desired protection to the blade.
The MLE protective strips can be made from a variety of materials such as titanium and titanium alloys. These two materials are commonly used due to their desirable weight, strength and mechanical properties. Generally, hot forming techniques are used to create the protective strips. Such processes can be time consuming and expensive, and can also result in high yield losses, especially when attempting to fabricate thin, complex geometries for the protective strips.
Another type of MLE process is an additive manufacturing process that involves the buildup of a metal part or preformed to make a near net shape (“NNS”) component. This manufacturing process can be used to make components from expensive materials. When a high temperature, melt-based process (e.g., plasma transferred arc, laser cladding, etc.) is used as the additive method to make a NNS component, complex tools can be used in such manufacturing process. One such tool is described and illustrated in U.S. 2010/0242843.
Several prior art manufacturing methods for forming leading edges on metal materials are disclosed in U.S. 2010/0242843; U.S. 2009/0162207; U.S. Pat. No. 7,805,839; U.S. Pat. No. 7,780,420; U.S. Pat. No. 7,780,410; U.S. Pat. No. 7,510,778; U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,465; U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,446; U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,972; U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,959; U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,758, U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,376; U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,825; U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,805; U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,999; U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,234; and EP1738861, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Although leading edges for use on blades is common, the formation of the leading edge for blades that require very small error tolerances can be difficult to make, especially when the blade onto which the leading edge is to be applied is large. This is especially a problem at the end or nose region of the leading edge. Due to advances in aerospace technology, the nose or end region of the leading edge is used to not only protect the edge of the blade, but to also create an end profile of the blade that can increase the efficiency of the blade and/or operation of the aircraft engine. As such, special nose or edge profiles are required on the leading edge. Such special leading edge profiles can be difficult or impossible to obtain using standard technologies used to form leading edges.
In view of the current state of the art for manufacturing high-strength precision metal parts, there is a need for a manufacturing method that can create a leading edge in a time-effective and cost effective-manner, that can create a leading edge having certain profiles, and which method can repeatedly form a leading edge with small error tolerances.